I have a 9.8 Sterling Velocity that I bought on gearexpress (short dynamic ropes) for relatively cheap. It's held up pretty well, other than initially attracting a lot of dirt, handles well, and has a nice catch.

I completely agree with you here. There is absolutly no reason to go with a rope smaller than 10 mm unless you specifically need it for the weight savings. You might go with as small as a 9.8, but smaller than that just means that your rope will wear out much more quickly. Maybe the OP can tell us exactly why he wants a smaller rope.

I was looking into purchasing a rope for the first time (To do a combo of sport/TR climbing).

Currently in afghanistan so i can't really do much but read reviews and whatnot, however i have been looking at the Sterling Marathon 10.1 MM 60m rope. It should be more than enough to climb most of the routes in Hawaii (Tis where im stationed)

I used to TR off and on for about 3 years, then work got in the way, looking to get back into climbing. Convinced a few guys out here to do it with me... Money is really no object...

Currently in afghanistan so i can't really do much but read reviews and whatnot, however i have been looking at the Sterling Marathon 10.1 MM 60m rope. It should be more than enough to climb most of the routes in Hawaii (Tis where im stationed)

In reply to:

You can't get a better rope than a Sterling Marathon, so if mondy is no object I would highly recommend that one.

I have a 9.8 Sterling Velocity that I bought on gearexpress (short dynamic ropes) for relatively cheap. It's held up pretty well, other than initially attracting a lot of dirt, handles well, and has a nice catch.

That was my first rope and its great, I would highly recommend it. I've since moved onto a Nano 9.2 which works fine with the GriGri still.

I use a 9.8mm (mammut) rope and love it. Anything much bigger just doesn't feel like it runs as well through a grigri. But unless you are redpointing really hard routes, anything smaller is a waste of money as it will wear quickly. More importantly I would make sure to get a rope with a length of at least 60m and preferrrably 70m unless you are only climbing very short routes.

My 9.1 locks of reasonably well with a GriGri. One does have to be careful with that small of a rope though.

Define: - reasonably - well

Seriously, not joking. Just bought a 9.4 and am curious about this...

in a regular fall, the grigri will lock up on just about anything- its those slow falls or rests or a fall on a rope with alot of friction that the cam may not engage on ropes smaller than 9.7 or so. this is why you keep your hand on the brake- your brake hand holding the rope will cause the cam to engage on the grigri- regardless of what is happening on the climber end of the rope.

i know lots of folks who will use the grigri on anything that could be called a rope- from 7.1 twins to 11mm fatties. your best range of control on the grigri, though, is from 9.7 and up. below that, the release gets a little dicey as does the catch- but being aware of this and maintaining control of the rope (like you should be anyway) will keep you alive.